The present invention relates to a consumer scrubbing wipe article. More particularly, it relates to nonwoven substrate-based scrubbing wipe article having a printed texture layer that provides enhanced scrubbing capabilities and is amenable to loading of the substrate with a variety of chemical solutions.
Consumers have long enjoyed the convenience of single-use, nonwoven-based wipes or wiping articles for cleaning various surfaces around the home. One common example is a paper towel. More recently, wipes loaded with cleaning or disinfecting/sanitizing chemicals have become increasingly popular. These products are useful for not only cleaning stains from surfaces, but also disinfect, to a certain extent, the contacted surface. In general terms, typical loaded wipe products (i.e., nonwoven substrate with liquid or dry chemicals absorbed into the nonwoven substrate) include a nonwoven substrate composed of short fibers that are resin bound to add strength when wet. These resins are normally anionic in nature. However, the use of nonionic or cationic binder resins has been on the increase since the cleaning/disinfecting/sanitizing solutions mainly used for loaded wipes is a cationic quaternary ammonium sale. The nonionic or cationic binder resin provides the most reliable release of the quaternary ammonium salt from the substrate. While the quaternary ammonium salt serves as an effective anti-microbial agent, certain potential drawbacks have been identified such as overt drying of the user's hand after repeated use and lack of compatibility with other chemicals and substrates.
Beyond the identified cleaning solution disadvantages, disinfecting wipes fail to address an additional consumer preference. Namely, consumers oftentimes desire to use the wipe for cleaning tasks requiring scrubbing or scouring. For example, it is difficult, if not impossible, to remove dried food from a countertop using an inherently soft disinfecting wipe (or non-disinfecting wipe). Conversely, however, consumers strongly prefer that the wipe not be overly rigid (in other words, that the wipe be drapeable) for ease of use, minimizing injury to the user's hand, etc. As such, for many applications, commercially available scouring pads are simply not acceptable.
Attempts to address the above-identified concerns have been met with limited success. In general terms, currently available consumer wipe products that purport to have a “scrubbyness” attribute generally include a nonwoven base substrate onto which thermoplastic fibers are meltblown. One example of this technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,609 to Lamers et al. In theory, the meltblown fibers provide an abrasive texture surface to the resulting wipe. In practice, however, the meltblown fibers are only marginally more “abrasive” than the base substrate itself due in large part to the extremely thin nature of the blown fibers (typically less than 10 microns in diameter), as well as the random nature in which the fibers are dispersed over the substrate's surface.
Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,588 to Wong et al., describes an abrasive wipe consisting of a nonwoven substrate having printed thereon a cured scrubbing bead mixture. Wong is focused upon using a paper towel-like base substrate that may be less durable than other nonwoven materials. Nonetheless, the printed nature of the scrubbing layer does facilitate formation of a viable texture pattern as compared to meltblown fibers. Further, the scrubbing bead mixture technique of Wong entails a relatively lengthy manufacturing cycle due to requisite curing (or crosslinking) of the scrubbing bead mixture resin. The mixture, prior to printing, contains polymeric abrasive particles having a diameter(s) of 20-400 microns. The printed mixture (otherwise including the particles) extends 40-300 microns beyond the substrate's surface. It is believed that the wipe of Wong obtains this raised pattern due the large particles contained in the resin mixture. Finally, the scrubbing bead mixture of Wong is anionic. This characteristic overtly limits the types of chemical solutions that can be “loaded” into the wipe. In particular, the Wong scrubbing wipe cannot be loaded with certain aqueous cleaning agents that are cationic, for example quaternary ammonium salts. Conversely, other scrubbing wipe products incorporate a cationic resin nonwoven substrate and/or a texture layer that is cationic-based, and thus cannot be loaded with an anionic chemical solution.
Consumer demand for scrubbing wipe products continues to grow. Unfortunately, currently available wipe products do not provide an acceptable level of scrubbyness, are limited in the types of chemical solutions that can be delivered and/or entail rigorous manufacturing requirements. Therefore, a need exists for a consumer scrubbing and wiping article that has a high degree of scrubbyness, promotes easy handling by the user, and is capable of being loaded with a wide variety of chemical solutions, as well as methods of manufacture.